With its artists and institutions affirming their place in global art conversation at the Venice Biennial as part of the very foundation of the house, Nigeria, by its ‘absence’ is shifting focus from being just a physical entity but a lens through which the world is seen. Yinka Olatunbosun writes.
At the crux of this year’s Venice Biennale lies a fascinating paradox for West Africa’s cultural powerhouse. For the first time since 2017 since its official national participation, the green-white-green flag is not hoisted at an official national pavilion. Yet, paradoxically, the Nigerian presence in Venice has never felt more structural or deeply embedded in the “DNA” of the exhibition.
While the Nigerian government opted for a “strategic hiatus” to restructure its cultural diplomacy under the Destination 2030 initiative—aiming for a grand, permanent return in 2028—the vacuum has been filled by a sophisticated network of individual artists and independent institutions.
Cementing this institutional pivot is the Guests Artists Space, otherwise known as G.A.S. Foundation. Founded by Yinka Shonibare CBE in Lagos and Ijebu Ode, the foundation is one of the participants in the main exhibition of the Biennale, titled In Minor Keys.
Curated posthumously according to the vision of the late Koyo Kouoh, the Biennale features G.A.S. not just as a supporter, but as a “world-making” institution. By highlighting the foundation’s work in research, residency, and agricultural sustainability, the Biennale acknowledges that the future of Nigerian art isn’t just in the objects produced, but in the infrastructure built on the ground in Lagos.
After the premature passing of Koyo Kouoh in May 2025, with the full support of her family, La Biennale di Venezia decided to carry out her exhibition, with the purpose of preserving, enhancing and widely disseminating her ideas and the work she pursued with such dedication till she passed. The invited participants of this exhibition – among them, individual artists, collaborative duos, collectives, and artist-led organisations – hail from many geographies and regions selected by Kouoh with particular attention to resonances, affinity, and possible convergences between practices, even when far apart. Kouoh sought to envision how their ingenuity, breadth of material experimentation, and visionary ideas bear connections to other artists and movements in simultaneity. In this spirit, In Minor Keys 110-participant strong expands upon Kouoh’s relational geography of encounters with artists over her lifetime.
Kouoh’s curation leans heavily on the “African gaze,” featuring a roster of heavyweights who represent the country’s contemporary range namely Otobong Nkanga who brings her signature exploration of land, memory, and repair; Marcia Kure, known for her intricate, multidisciplinary works that bridge traditional Nigerian motifs with global contemporary concerns; Ranti Bam who showcases her evocative, tactile sculptural works that push the boundaries of clay and form. Also, Temitayo Ogunbiyi merges play, botany, and social interaction through her site-specific installations at the Venice Biennial.
G.A.S. Foundation’s inclusion in In Minor Keys, as one of six artist-led organisations participating in Kouoh’s “Schools” motif, reflects its ongoing commitment to bringing together artists and thinkers, fostering cultural dialogue, care, and exchange across local and international contexts. Kouoh’s invitation to participate in the main exhibition recognises the residency not simply as a support structure, but as a practice in its own right—a site of research and sustained engagement that generates meaning through dialogue and shared inquiry.
Tiwani Contemporary acts as a Residency and Fellowship Supporter of this programme, led by the Yinka Shonibare Foundation.
Also exhibiting at In Minor Keys, Theo Eshetu presents Garden of the Broken Hearted, an installation and video project, offering a moment of contemplation and reflections on the complexity of brutal realities that impact many people’s lives; realities that are simultaneously consumed at a distance through images on our screens. Working with water, light, shadows and enclosures, the Garden of the Broken Hearted echoes a real garden, as a space of contemplation and isolation.
The installation centres around an olive tree resting on a rotating dais, inviting meditations on time and motion and inspiring resilience and peace. In the words of the artist: “The olive tree, like the apple tree in the Garden of Eden, stands as an emblem for these times, when everything is so difficult, when all our reasoning is so clogged up and logic is turned on its head. We might need to go back to the garden to try to find other realities, other ways of feeling, other ways of thinking, other ways of looking at things.”
The work explores the garden as a space for gathering – of plants as much as of people – a space for growth, exchange, community, and thought, but also a sign of unrooting, control, and appropriation. It acts as an overarching motif for the image of the olive tree and its symbolic presence. It stands as a poetic reflection on impermanence, exploring aspects of humanity through lessons drawn from the observation of nature.
Following the high-profile 2024 pavilion, the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Tourism, led by Hannatu Musa Musawa, announced a shift toward a more “sustainable framework.” The goal is to move away from the “episodic” nature of past pavilions—which often relied on last-minute private funding—and toward a model of permanent institutional collaboration. In short, Nigeria is taking a “gap year” to ensure that when it returns for the 62nd Biennale in 2028, it does so with the weight of a permanent national cultural policy.
Even without a building, the “Nigeria Everywhere” spirit is alive in the collateral events and satellite shows. The African Art in Venice Forum (AAVF) remains a hub for Nigerian collectors and scholars, while independent curators have organised “pop-up” dialogues that argue Nigeria doesn’t need a formal pavilion to dominate the conversation.
The 2026 Venice Biennale marks a shift from Representation to Integration. Nigeria is no longer a guest knocking at the door of the Giardini; its artists and institutions have become part of the very foundation of the house. By being “absent,” Nigeria is proving that its cultural influence is now too large to be contained within a single room.